Everything Old is New Again

My buddy Neva and I went to dinner and a little shopping on Monday evening, and one of the places we ended up was Sephora. I wanted to get some Lorac mascara, as recommended by Gina. The girls who worked there had the bright, multi-colored eye shadow that was semi-popular in the mid-80s. You know, like Cyndi Lauper here used to wear.

Seeing them made me think a couple of thoughts…

1st, boy, I’m getting old, because things that were trendy when I was in college are coming back around.

2nd, it reminded me of my mindset when I tried these looks…I just wanted to be cool. That was the whole goal. I wasn’t as pretty as my friends, so I thought, if I can’t be pretty, I can at least be cool. Hence the super short buzz cuts died David Bowie orange, and the green eyeshadow applied just below the brow line. Good looks? No. Pretty? No. Cool? Hell yes. At least in 1986 they were. At least in Stockton. I’m not sure what the kids think about these looks nowadays. You know, seeing as how I’m 40 and all.

3rd, I was thinking about how it would look if I were to try this look again…being 40, trying the multi-hued eyeshadow. It reminded me of a quote from a gen-X film, Singles. Bridget Fonda says of her slacker would-be suitor, Matt Dillon, “Somewhere around 25, bizarre becomes immature.” So, maybe not so cool on me these days.

On to the mascara…what is it about me, that I am physically unable to apply any mascara without smudging it onto my eyelid? I’m talking the area RIGHT above the lash line. I get little blobs of mascara there, and then I have to remove it with a QTip, which makes my mascara kind of clump together, and I have to fix that, and also fix the eyeshadow that I messed up with my QTip. It’s a process, and one that I could easily do without.

Next make up thing, the whole foundation in summer thing. The most important part of foundation, should you choose to wear it, is that it match your skin color exactly. Well, that’s easier in the winter than in the summer, because in the summer my skin color changes as I swim, walk the dog, live my life. What am I supposed to do, buy 10 different shades of foundation? That’s crazy. So I took another tip from Gina, and got myself some tinted moisterizer. Not as much coverage as regular foundation, but the color isn’t set, and it looks pretty darned good. Yay! I used to wear tinted moisturizer back in my early 20s, but had forgotten all about it. Thanks again, Gina!

Lastly, I cannot in good conscience recommend spray-on tanners. I bought some Neutrogena Micro Mist self tanner, thinking it would be better than a cream, because I can’t reach the middle of my back with a cream. Well, you can’t really tell where this stuff has decided to stay, and where it hasn’t.  So I now have weird patches of fake tan on my legs, mixed in with patches of white. I swear, it’s enough to drive a person poolside, and wrinkles and skin cancer be damned! Not a good attitude, I know, and I’m sure I’ll come to my senses pretty soon. But boy, those real tans look pretty good.